The Satluj-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal issue that had rocked Punjab and Haryana for decades is once again likely to take the centre stage as the Haryana government has written to the Centre seeking its intervention alleging ?Some areas in south Haryana are deprived of water due to non-completion of SYL canal by Punjab?.
In a letter to the Union minister of water resources, Salman Khurshid, Haryana Irrigation minister, Capt. Ajay Singh Yadav on Friday drew his attention to the fact that the Presidential Reference had been pending with the Supreme Court of India for more than seven years.
The SYL as well as the Hansi-Butana canal, which has been constructed by the Haryana government at a cost of about Rs 400 crore, once finished, will irrigate the water-starved agricultural fields of south Haryana. However, both these projects have not been commissioned due to inter-state disputes, regional politics and certain other techno-legal factors.
Haryana has once again raked up the issue and the letter sent on Friday said ?this perhaps is the only Presidential Reference which has not been decided by the Supreme Court for more than seven years?. The Haryana minister has also attached with his letter a list of Presidential References made by the Government of India to the Supreme Court since 1951 showing that all these were decided almost in the same year itself.
While taking cognizance of the unusual delay of more than seven years in deciding the Presidential Reference No. 1 of 2004 regarding termination of Water Agreements Act passed by Punjab Legislature and related issue of construction of Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal, the Haryana government today sought personal intervention of Union minister of water resources urging him to take up the issue with Attorney General of India who in turn should take up the matter with the Supreme Court for early decision on these vital issues.
Capt. Yadav said that the matter was not being listed despite being mentioned several times by the Haryana government in all these years and an application was also filed in this regard in August-2010. It gives us a feeling that the government of India has not followed up the matter with the Supreme Court of India, he added.